Distracting Names & Waiting on the Lord (Jeremiah 41-43)

Written by Andy Pisciotti | March 16, 2010 | Jeremiah 41 - 43

Johanan the son of Kareah, son of Elishama, and Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah.

Are all of these weird names hard for anyone else to read? Sometimes I get so lost in the text trying to pronounce the names of people and places in my head that I have trouble concentrating on what the text actually says. I’m not going to lie, yesterday I started daydreaming about being referred to as Andrew son of Anthony, son of Francis. And I wonder if people like Johanan, Kareah, Elishama, Gedaliah Ahikam, Shaphan, Jezaniah, Hoshaiah, Ishmael, and Nethaniah would laugh to hear names like Andrew, Tony, and Francis.

When I get distracted on those types of things it’s really easy to miss some of the passages that we really need to take note of. I think that Jeremiah 42:7 is an important verse:

And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

I think this is significant. It may not sem like much, but don’t you find it interesting that this guy who has been conversing with the Lord pretty regularly and receiving many prophecies in various situations now has to wait 10 days for a response? He doesn’t even complain about it.

Maybe I’m just reading into it more than I should, but perhaps there is significance. How often do we give up on prayers and answers when we don’t hear from God in the first five minutes? I know I do this all of the time. I’ll ask for something specific in my prayer and declare that I’ll wait on Him for an answer, sit in five minutes of silent expectation,  and then with no answer do what it was I had planned on doing from the beginning. Why even bother asking if we’re not willing to wait, and not willing to obey?  We see over and over again in scripture that we need to wait on the Lord.

Psalm 27:14 - Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!
Psalm 37:9 - For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.
Psalm 37:34 - Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;

His timing is much different than ours. Like we just learned at the end of Job, his plans are different than ours. However, his plans and his timing are not only different much of the time, but they’re always much better than ours! Let’s learn a lesson from Azariah and Johanan’s mistake. They asked for an answer, but they disobeyed when they got it.

Let me encourage you to wait on the Lord. Be like Jeremiah…be patient, and obey. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.